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Monthly Archives: October 2013

I hit up some estate sales last weekend. I’m not in the market for more furniture per se, but it’s fun to look. At a house near Stamford, I came across this couch that was selling for $25, in pretty good shape, nubby 80s upholstery and random blue satin-lined box of silverware aside.

If I had room in the car, and maybe two burly buddies to help me lug it, I would have taken this fella home. With some love and new upholstery, it could easily look like this (minus the lacquered walls, obvi):

Recently at a party, I went to hug someone (a South American someone) hello only to realize that we were doing the kiss on the cheek and then I smushed into the hug anyway, sliding cheeks. Yeesh. Had I only watched this genius video first, directed by Eva Michon, narrated by Jason Schwartzman…

I love a good thrift store portrait. I love portraiture in general really, particularly the weird kind. Last year, I stumbled across this bizarrely androgynous character at a thrift shop near the Gowanus Canal. I bought it for $30. The canvas is roughly 2 by 2 1/2 feet, and I love it. He/she gazes out the window in my bedroom.

Obviously, there’s a real danger for thrift store portraits to be ultra creepy. Don’t believe me? Try searching for “portrait” on eBay. I think the bigger question is: what does it mean that we fill our homes with portraits of strangers while most photos of family and loved ones live on our phones or on our computers or on Facebook?

I came home today and decided to do some lazy Friday Halloween decorating, which means swapping out the books that sit on our media console for, wait for it, ORANGE and BLACK books. Woot! Also, that graphic print I got from my grandmother can be a little spooky, depending on the mood. So it’s propped up behind my ghoulish books for now.

When I was clerking for a federal judge a few years ago, I started a project drawing the U.S. presidents. It was triggered by my acquisition of a 1981 set of World Book Encyclopedia and the delight in reading historical entries for our nation’s forefathers, all the way up to, but not including Reagan. Also, I was taking classes at the time at the Ann Arbor Art Center with Heather Accurso who makes sometimes terrifying baby art. These are some of my drawings from the president project.